Medical diagnostic tool can analyse bitumen behaviour

According to a statement, the process may reduce the cost and time of analysing bitumen-gas interaction in heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs.

Dr David Sinton, professor with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Toronto University, and postdoctoral researcher Dr Hossein Fadaei are using the chips to examine the way highly pressurised CO₂ behaves when injected into bitumen.

The method, reported in the journal Energy & Fuels, could streamline the way fossil energy companies measure the diffusion of gases in heavier oils such as bitumen.

‘To my knowledge, this is the first application of microfluidics in the study of gas-bitumen diffusion,’ said Sinton.

Bitumen and heavy oil are difficult to extract from reservoirs because they are thick and do not flow easily. There are several methods of extraction, one of which uses CO₂-rich gas injections that help liquefy the bitumen for easier extraction. This process can supplement the steam-injection method, which requires heavy inputs of energy and water, and it presents opportunities for the sequestration of CO₂ in the reservoir.

Sinton said that before companies pump CO₂ into reservoirs they need to first determine how the CO₂ and oil will behave under specific pressures and in specific rock formations. Conventional methods of analysis are conducted using about 0.5L of bitumen and a process that can take hours or even days for a single test result.

Sinton and his colleagues used a small glass microchip to replicate a pore within a rock reservoir. The channels in the pore are 50 microns wide. The device is initially filled with CO₂ at low pressure and a small sample of bitumen is injected into the centre of the chip. High-pressure CO₂ is then injected at both ends of the chip and the swelling of the oil is measured over time.

‘This takes 10 minutes and uses a nanolitre plug of sample. If you can do a test in a few minutes and perform many tests in parallel, that’s a lot cheaper,’ he said. ‘The experimental set-up is also quite simple compared to existing methods.’

The method developed by Sinton shows potential as a rapid, reliable approach that could be used by both researchers and the oil and gas industry. Because it uses such small samples, the method could also be employed using hazardous solvents.

Next steps involve studying many types of oil or combinations of diffusion gases at one time in one chip; expanding temperature and pressure ranges of tests to match the variety of conditions found down-hole and in bitumen processing, and adapting the method to work with less viscous oils and other fluids such as brine. Diffusion of CO₂ into brine at high pressures is of particular interest for carbon sequestration applications.